Early last season, after watching Double-A Mobile play for an entire turn through the rotation, a veteran scout posed a question: Guess which Diamondbacks’ starting pitching prospect was the most impressive?

Tyler Skaggs? No. Trevor Bauer? Wrong again. Pat Corbin? Nuh-uh.

The correct answer was Chase Anderson, the undersized, somewhat under-the-radar right-hander with a wipeout changeup.

Anderson, added to the 40-man roster after an impressive Arizona Fall League season, is in his first big league camp with the Diamondbacks, and he said this week he’s trying to do what he can to open eyes.

“I think there’s always jobs you’re trying to win,” he said. “I’m going to do my best to go out and show the guys what I have and do the best that I can. If I break camp with the team, that would be great. If not, hopefully I’ll go to Triple-A and do well there. I’m going to do the best I can to get a job.”

A look at Anderson’s career statistical record would make you think you’re looking at a highly touted prospect: He has a 3.09 ERA in 271 innings, with just 64 walks and 19 home runs allowed to go with 279 strikeouts. That’s a 9.3 strikeout rate, 2.1 walk rate and 0.6 home run rate.

The stuff’s not bad, either. Pitching off a fastball that sits in the low-90s, his change-up is generally regarded as the best among Diamondbacks’ minor leaguers. Some believe it’s the best in the entire organization. Farm director Mike Bell often says Anderson’s curveball is better than advertised.

But Anderson is rated only 11th by Baseball America among Diamondbacks prospects, and there are two things that might be working against him: First, he has had arm problems. In 2011, he had a flexor tendon strain in his right elbow and missed all but three starts. Last year, he missed another month of the season with elbow problems. For his prospect status to fully bloom, he’ll need to show he can put together a completely healthy season.

Anderson says he hopes to prevent any more setbacks by trying to stay on top of his workout program.

“I have to be in the weight room, stay on top of all of my shoulder stuff to keep me healthy,” he said. “I guess you can say prehab instead of rehab.”

But the other knock on Anderson is entirely out of his control: his size. All things being equal, scouts will almost always prefer the 6-foot-5 pitcher to a one who is 6-1 like Anderson. Of course, there are plenty of examples of normal-sized successful pitchers, and Anderson motioned across the clubhouse toward one.

“Look at Ian Kennedy,” he said. “Look at that guy, he’s a stud. I kind of model my game a little bit after him because he kind of defies the (stereotype) because he’s 5-11. He pitches 200 innings every year. He’s smart with his body, knows what he can do. And does the best he can with what he has. He kind of controls what he can control.”

Anderson ticked off the similarities between the two – both are about the same height, rely on fastball command, possess above-average change-ups – and said he was planning to take advantage of his proximity this spring by picking Kennedy’s brain.

“I’m sure as we get into camp more, I’ll ask him certain things,” Anderson said. “He’s just kind of a guy you look up to if you have my body type and what he’s done.”

Anderson isn’t expected to work his way into the competition for the fifth starter’s spot, but as manager Kirk Gibson likes to point out, unexpected things happen every spring.

“You want to prove to people,” Anderson said, “that you can be up there and pitch in the big leagues.”

On Friday, Gibson noticed a group of outfielders who, rather than just going through the motions, seemed to be working especially hard. Ross and rookie Adam Eaton were in the group, and later, Gibson asked Eaton about his new teammate. Eaton said he had to concentrate just to keep up with Ross.

“(Eaton) said he was in line with him and said, ‘Hey, Cody, you go at this pretty quick?’” Gibson recounted. “Cody looked at him and said, ‘Yeah. Got to get better.’ It’s great leadership. It’s not that he’s thinking this out, it’s just how he does it, how he goes about it. When you think about bringing people in, it makes a difference.”

Gibson said it was the same sort of leading-by-example that the Diamondbacks got out of catcher Henry Blanco the past couple of years.

“It’s immeasurable what those guys bring,” he said.

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Once Diamondbacks PR man Casey Wilcox was named by Arizona Foothills Magazine as one of Phoenix’s most eligible bachelors, you knew it was only a matter of time before the team found a way to have some fun with it.

That happened during Friday morning’s team meeting, when four different T-shirts were distributed amongst the team. Here’s one of them:

“If you get the whole set of four, you’ve got a collection and the value goes way up,” Gibson said. “He’s a real movie star right now.”